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On this day 40 years ago, October 27, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law a little noticed, bipartisan bill that sailed through Congress.

The “Brooks Act”, named for its sponsor, then-Representative Jack Brooks (D-TX), provided for an innovative and creative way to select firms to perform architecture, engineering and related services by contract to federal agencies. Years before “best value’, “past performance” and other modern procurement processes were even dreamed of, Messrs, Nixon and Brooks, political rivals, and other Republicans and Democrats had the vision to recognize the “lowest bid” did not always mean the best deal for the taxpayer.

Have you ever wondered by countries like Haiti and Mexico suffer such abject building failures when earthquakes of similar or greater magnitude are less severe in the United States?

Mark Raymond studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and since returning to Trinidad in 1993 has been responsible for a wide range of architectural, urban design and planning projects throughout the Caribbean. Mark has lectured on his work at the Caribbean School of Architecture in Kingston, Jamaica, UNPHU in Santo Domingo, London Metropolitan University and more recently at Yale University. He is interested in the capacity of innovative architectural, urban and landscape design to ensure a sustainable future.

Google SketchUp Pro is a simple but powerful tool for exploring and presenting your ideas in 3D. SketchUp Pro is everything traditional CAD software isn’t — quick to learn and intuitive to use. This video shows some of the features of Sketup Pro: